Hollowing out NYSEG

Dozens of employees retired or resigned and were not replaced. Key units went from 20 employees to three or four -- because, auditors found, Spanish executives believed utilities in New York state, susceptible to fierce blizzards and powerful hurricanes, could get by with the same workforce as their units in Spain, where weather is somewhat more serene...

Auditors repeatedly said RG&E and NYSEG suffered from staff shortages. In 2009 and 2010, Iberdrola's first two full years in charge, 219 workers retired -- and exactly four of them were replaced, the audit said....

While auditors asserted Iberdrola executives in Spain were not very attentive to goings-on at their U.S. subsidiaries, the exception was employment. They mandated big reductions at their upstate New York properties and the corporate board monitored reductions almost monthly.